Community Housing Event

Exploring pathways to affordable home ownership and connected living opportunities

The Challenge

In New Zealand, we are in a housing crisis throughout the country with residents being priced out of the housing market and finding that available housing is inadequate for their needs. There is social housing for those at the lowest earning level while some can still afford to buy within the market, but there is a growing number of people who fall outside of these options — who need intermediate housing options.
Working New Zealanders need more solutions than just waiting for developers to build more homes they can’t afford. In addition, many people are also saying they feel isolated in the conventional suburban neighbourhood – people want to feel more connected within their neighbourhoods and have more sharing and connected living opportunities.

Purpose of Event:

This event will showcase the many pathways that groups of people and communities in New Zealand and overseas are creating for affordable home ownership and connected living opportunities. The event will serve to:

Provide networking opportunities for community members, developers, planners, and funders to meet and discuss possibilities

Collect information needed for housing and urban development policy reform such as what working people need and want in terms of housing and neighbourhoods: finance, design, accessibility, etc.

Format

There will be series of dynamic presentations covering a wide variety of affordable housing and connected living models and a chance to ask questions of the presenters during a panel discussion. Some of the topics include: co-housing, pocket neighbourhoods, community land trust, ecological rural communities, the tiny house movement, local innovative housing developments, financial and legal models that enable community-led housing, and more.
After the formal event proceedings there will also be an opportunity to network and have further dialogue about how to take these ideas further.

Who Should Attend:

The housing models showcased focus pathways into affordable “intermediate” home ownership and/or living in a more intentionally-designed neighbourhood that promotes social cohesion.
The event is also intended to inspire and connect the various role players who are working towards innovative housing solutions such as community housing organisations, urban planners, Councillors, architects, developers, etc.
Cost: $10/pp online or $15 at the door which includes refreshments and nibbles. Reduced price for students & low income—contact Samantha to arrange. Cash bar and meals can be bought from Agora.
Register here
For further information contact Sam, Community Development Worker by email or call 027 843 3002

Coming Together on Common Ground

Welcome Neighbours!
What would make living in your neighbourhood more awesome? Let’s co-create our dreams…
This is event is to celebrate our diversity and our many cultures, vision our positive future, build on our strengths, find ways of working together, craft solutions for our challenges, create an inclusive, vibrant, abundant community. You’ll leave feeling inspired, delighted, and connected.
Bring your favourite family or cultural dish to share in a potluck meal. After dinner, get ready to jump into the community-building activities and discussions. Children under 12 will be offered a special children’s programme.
Four Events held around Hamilton. You’re invited to attend the one closest to you.

This projects aims to create an avenue for permanently affordable home ownership through a Community Land Trust—which would be the first of its kind in New Zealand and which would set a precedent and road map for other communities to create CLTs for permanently affordable housing. With sound policy and effective action, we can shape our communities to be equitable and filled with opportunity for all. As neighborhoods grow and change, we can make sure that happens in a way that is good for the people who live there. Affordable home ownership ensures that families can put down roots without fear of being forced out and that people who are providing essential services can also live in the communities they serve. Strong communities have diverse housing options for a variety of incomes, offering choice and opportunity for all residents.

Outcomes of the project include a legal, financial, and policy framework for a CLT in Hamilton, guidelines for creating a working CLT board made of up homeowners, members from the community and representatives from community organisations, identifying possible parcels of land and avenues for acquisition including possible re-zoning, defining the house typology and a methodology for membership and steps to home ownership.

Shama is looking to partner with families interested in affordable housing, developers, funders, housing researchers, community-based organisations, and town planners to collaboratively create the first CLT in New Zealand.

About the Community-Led Development Programme

The Community-Led Development Programme began at the end of January of 2015 under the Community Development Scheme by the Department of Internal Affairs. During the first 3 years the CDW had set outcomes to achieve:

building connections between migrant communities in Hamilton,

creating inter-generational community connections, and

raising the ethnic community profile and developing a positive ethnic youth media strategy.

For a community to lead themselves they need to:

Have a common interest, value, goal that is shared amongst a group that they want to achieve

Have a way to get together to discuss & share these ideas

Have exposure to best practices in that area of interest (what works, what doesn’t, with whom can we partner & learn from)

Gain capacity in working together as a group (communication, facilitation, decision making, conflict resolution, goal setting, etc) as well as any specialised skills to achieve that goal

Shama’s Community Development Worker (CDW) aims to provide these opportunities.